


Invisible Fingers

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Sith Ascendant [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen, Mutilation in the course of a battle, Unreliable Narrator, harm to a child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-18 06:29:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2338526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>My little tunnel-mite will not want the sort of rescue you Jedi would give her, when all she desires is the power she's been given.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Eea is eight Standard when she finds the ship hidden in the tunnels under the slums she calls home, and sneaks aboard. She finds more than she expects, and an escape that she'd never imagined. Knowledge and power are all the reason she needs to embrace the painful training of the Sith who found her, and the Dark Side of the Force.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tunnel-Mite

Her friends had said it wasn't good to go exploring in the tunnels alone - or at all, really - but she's always been curious, and besides, there's nothing topside to keep them fed, and she's hungry. When she found the ship hidden in one of the bigger tunnels, she almost ran back the way she'd came. Except she _is_ hungry, and the ship isn't all shut up. Maybe the owner had gotten in trouble in the tunnels, and even if they hadn't, it won't hurt to see if she can steal some food.

Even if the owner comes back, she can hide very well, and sometimes make people forget she's there, anyway.

Creeping up the ramp, Eea listens very carefully for any sounds and watches for movement. Nothing, though the inside of the ship smells almost as much as the sewer tunnels topside. And nothing comes when she starts looking for anything that's edible, or while she's bolting down a slightly sticky bar that tastes funny, but not the same way food that makes her sick tastes funny.

Eea looks over the rest of the bars for a long moment before she decides that if her friends aren't brave enough to come with her into the tunnels, she doesn't need to take them back any of the spoils she found. Smiling to herself, she turns away from them, looking around for somewhere to sleep. There's a room which has a bed, but it's smellier than the rest of the ship.

There's a less smelly place, and though it's a little bare, it's not any worse than the slums topside, and probably better. At least here, she doesn't have to worry about the sharks finding her while she's sleeping, and taking her away because she's alone and no one's watching her back. Or because the friend watching her back got bribed too well to wake her up.

* * *

Jerking awake, Eea listens intently, shrinking a little further into the small space she'd crawled into to sleep, trying to pretend she isn't here. There's someone else on the ship, probably the person who owns it, and she doesn't want him to find her. Maybe sleeping in here instead of taking some of the bars out into the tunnels with her was a bad idea, but it hadn't felt like one.

"I know you're there." The voice isn't friendly, but it doesn't sound mean, either. Not like the sharks who steal slum kids, or like security goons who chase them. Just a person, but one her little hiding trick doesn't work on.

Eea doesn't reply, anyway. Even regular people aren't always safe, and if her hiding trick doesn't work on him, maybe her other tricks to get away won't either, and at least it's harder to get her when she's in a place which is small.

She shrieks a little when she feels something invisible grab her arm, dragging her out of her hole, before trying to pry the invisible fingers off her arm.

Something crouches in front of her, and she shifts her weight, lashing out with one fist, though whatever he is, her fist is caught before she can hit him. All red and black, with yellow eyes and small horns on his head. And smelly. Even slum kids know how to find water to wash in sometimes.

"What are you doing on my ship?" He sounds a little angry now, but also like he wants to laugh, and Eea goes still, breathing fast as she watches him warily. People who sound like that are always weird. "Stealing food and stowing away?"

Eea narrows her eyes. "You left it open, it's fair game." She doesn't know what stowing away is, unless it's stealing someone's sleeping place, and she didn't really do that.

He snorts, his grip on her fist tightening until she winces, and even then, he doesn't let go. It hurts, but Eea doesn't let herself whimper. Weakness is what gets slum kids left for the sharks.

Instead, she tries again to pry the invisible fingers that are still wrapped around her arm, trying to use one of the little tricks that works on real fingers. It just seems to make red-and-black smile, showing off sharp teeth. Eea glares at him, wondering if the invisible fingers are like her little tricks.

"You need to learn to hide better, tunnel-mite. Even a Jedi's little apprentice could find you." He shakes her with the grip on her arm and the hand engulfing her fist. "Maybe if you can, I won't drop you out the air lock before landing."

Eea frowns, confused. "But we're still in the tunnels." She knows that, the same way she knows when to run from security goons, or use her little tricks against the sharks.

"If you can get out, you could stay in them." He lets her go, and Eea frowns, backing away from him, before bolting away. The ramp that let her in is gone, and she spins, watching the man following her. He grins, showing off his sharp teeth again, and Eea glares back. "Or you come with me, and I'll teach you more tricks. If you can hide better before I get to the next planet."

Eea watches him for a long moment before she nods. She's not sure this is safe, but it doesn't feel dangerous, and learning more tricks would be good.

* * *

"If you want to keep eating, you're going to have to find your own food here, tunnel-mite." Red-and-black hadn't tossed her out before he landed, but he wasn't going to be like the fleeces who sometimes came too close to the slums and were easy to cadge food out of. "The market is north and up several levels. Make it there and back with your own dinner. I'll be back tonight."

He watches her, waiting for her to say the one thing he'd told her was important to remember, when he'd told her she'd hidden well enough.

"Yes, Master." Eea thinks it's silly, but red-and-black said she has to call him master if she wants to learn new tricks, and for that, she'll do almost anything.

After red-and-black leaves, she peers out of the ship, waiting a long moment before bolting down the ramp, and toward the nearest hiding spot. It isn't like the tunnels, and it isn't a lot like topside, not in the slums part, anyway. Maybe a little like topside proper, but she'd never gone there.

Narrowing her eyes, she tries to figure out which way is north, toward the market red-and-black had mentioned where she can steal food. The feeling she could trust pushes her in one direction, and she follows it, hiding from others when she first sees them, and while the walkways are sparsely populated.

Closer to the market, she has to use the other tricks she knows to keep people from noticing her, following her nose as much as anything toward the smell of food. There aren't open-air stalls with food easy to snatch, like in the places topside between slums and proper, but there are alleys which smell of old food - and piss and sex, but that comes with alleys - and no one notices when she slips down one.

Behind a place that smells like cooking food and garbage, she crouches next to a door, waiting patiently for someone to open it. She's never tried to sneak in somewhere to snatch food, not before she found the ship in the tunnels, but she wants to prove she can. Show red-and-black she can take care of herself, so he'll teach her more tricks to make it easier.

Eventually someone comes out to toss something into the long shaft that smells the most of old food, and she darts through the door while their back is turned. It takes her a moment to find a place to hide, thinking with all her might that she's not here, and no one needs to pay attention to her.

Once she's stuffed herself underneath and between things, she watches the beings inside the building, figuring out where the food will be, and how to get to it. There's a room that the people go into, and bring out food stuffs to prepare, and Eea waits for a lull to sneak close to the door of the room, and to dart inside as someone comes out with their hands full.

It's cold in the room, and Eea shivers, looking at the food on the shelves, and snatching down a couple of nerf steaks, and a few fruits she recognizes, stuffing them into her pockets before she crouches next to the door, a fierce frown on concentration on her face as she waits for the next chance to escape.

* * *

The tunnel-mite is glaring at his cabin when he returns to his ship, his report given to his Master with careful edits to keep his little potential-apprentice a secret for now. If she's good enough, Sidious will find out about her when Maul kills him, with the tunnel-mite by his side. If she's not, he never needs to know.

"Your room stinks." The tunnel-mite gives him a glare as ferocious as the one she'd been giving his cabin. "Master," she adds, when Maul narrows his eyes, glaring at her as much as she's glaring at him.

"Then clean it yourself." He would have had the servants Sidious keeps clean the shuttle while he is on Coruscant, if he'd not wanted to keep the tunnel-mite hidden for now.

She tilts her head, glare fading into an expression more sly. "Should I clean everything, Master?" The easy use of the title she should have remembered earlier makes Maul suspicious, but he nods anyway, just to see what the tunnel-mite will do. The bright, wide grin is unexpected, as is the cheerful, "Thank you, Master!"

Maul blinks, watching the girl warily as she starts for the fresher, before he whirls, stalking off the shuttle to meditate outside. He's not sure what just happened, though the idea of having a personal servant in the form of a potential apprentice does have some appeal. Even if she is strangely cheerful about cleaning.

So long as she doesn't always stay that cheerful.


	2. First Trial

##### Four standard months later

"Survive until I return for you."

Red-and-black has taught Eea how to use the tricks - the Force, he calls it, the Dark Side - to not just keep things away, but to push them away, and to hurt them enough that they don't come after her again. She's also learning how to keep things and people away from her with her hands, better than she had before.

She hadn't expected to be left behind, though, and she scowls at red-and-black, glaring at him. "You promised you'd teach me."

"I am." Red-and-black smacks her with an invisible hand, making her stumble, and Eea ducks her head, knowing the correction was for her neglect of the title he wanted her to use for him. "Prove you can survive, and won't waste what I'm teaching you."

Eea grinds her teeth a moment before she nods. "Yes, Master." She wonders how long he'll be gone, and how smelly the shuttle is going to be when he returns. She hates the stink, and knows he's aware of it. He keeps finding places that reek to make her train.

Red-and-black watches her for a moment longer, before he nods, and leaves the room he'd brought her to, taking the light with him. Eea draws a slow breath, remembering how she'd found her way through the tunnels back home, some of which were as dark as this. All she has to do is survive here, like she did in the tunnels or the slums where she grew up, and wait for red-and-black to come back.

Opening her eyes again, she smiles into the pitch dark. She will prove she's worth teaching more about the Force.

* * *

Eea's scrubbing dried blood off her hands in the tiny pool she'd found when red-and-black returns, looking tired and angry in the pale light he brings with him. She scrambles to her feet, watching him carefully as he comes closer.

"Master?" She hasn't always remembered to use the title, but right now, she's not sure she wants to tempt him to cuff her upside the head again.

"Come." Red-and-black rests a hand at the back of her neck, guiding her out of the dark under-city she'd survived in while he went somewhere alone, and to a place that at least has light, higher in the city. It reminds her of the slums topside back home, and Eea wrinkles her nose a little.

There's a basin with water on one side of the room they finally stop in, and near it, a table with tools she doesn't recognize. Eea looks up at red-and-black with a frown, puzzled about what he brought her here for, instead of back to the shuttle.

"You want to learn more." Red-and-black meets her gaze, and Eea can see the anger is still there, and other things she can't read so well.

"Of course." Eea wants to learn anything he'll teach her about the Force, wants to know all the tricks so she will never have to fear sharks or security goons.

"Then you have earned a mark of your survival, and your apprenticeship." Red-and-black pushes her toward the table, his hand still at the back of her neck.

"Like yours?" Eea isn't sure she wants ink on her face, but if it's what it takes to have more lessons in the Force, she'll let him.

"Eventually." Red-and-black moves his hand to her shoulder, pushing until Eea drops to her knees. He settles on his knees in front of her, next to the table, and easily able to reach the tools on it. "Take off your shirt."

Eea crosses her arms, and shakes her head. "Not unless you take off yours, Master."

The blow is unexpected, a slap across her face that makes her ears ring. Eea gasps, her heart beginning to race as she pants against the pain, glaring at red-and-black. It takes a moment before she snarls, pushing back with the Force, unwilling to let him just hurt her without hurting him back. Or at least trying.

She can feel invisible fingers wrap around her wrists, drawing her arms up and keeping her still despite her struggles. Red-and-black strips her shirt off, and pulls her so she's lying on her stomach in front of him, still holding her down with the Force.

There is no warning before the first spark of pain, sharp and piercing, like a dull needle going through her flesh. Eea lets out a screech of shock, though she doesn't struggle after - she doesn't want to find out what will happen if she struggles at the wrong time while red-and-black is wielding a needle against her back. Even though she wants to squirm and wriggle away from the pain that keeps being renewed with each puncture.

She can't stop the whimpers from the pain, even though she bites her lip bloody trying to keep quiet. Nor can she stop the tears that escape her eyes, though she hopes red-and-black doesn't notice them. She doesn't want to stop learning.

* * *

This time, she has a vibroknife when she's left in the dark, and a tunic that's as black as red-and-black's own, that's warmer than the shirt he'd taken from her. Her back still aches with the new ink, but she had not disappointed red-and-black, so he'd taught her the basics of fighting with a knife. She has to find her way back to the room where she'd been given the tattoo on her own.

Eea reaches out with the Force, seeking the path back, and frowning when she realizes there's someone in her way. Someone who isn't red-and-black. And someone who isn't moving, just waiting, as if they know someone's coming.

As if she's expected.

She narrows her eyes, and creeps forward, knife held tightly in her hand. There's a man on the walkway where the first light from the upper levels of the city begins to filter down, watching the dark where she's hiding, as if waiting for her to emerge. A shark, maybe, who saw her and red-and-black coming down, and followed them.

"Just because he's not with me doesn't mean I'm helpless, shark," Eea calls, not moving from the shadows. "You want to try to catch me, come into the dark."

* * *

The tunnel-mite is bloody when she steps into the room, the knife still in her hand, different colors of blood drying on her skin. She is panting, and glares at him before she stomps toward the basin of water.

"Sharks and goons are both annoying. Doesn't this place have real slum kids? Or just little mice?"

Maul laughs, watching as the girl tugs off the tunic he'd given her without thought, and dumps it in the basin. "They're Core-worlders, tunnel-mite."

"Weak little mice." The girl wrinkles her nose, prodding the tunic until it's entirely soaked, before she drags it out, and pushes it to one side in a soggy heap so she can refill the basin to scrub herself. He watches her, noting the tattoo on her back is healing, black ink a contrast to the olive-bronze tones of her skin. There will be more - he will see his apprentice as marked as himself, as she earns the privilege.

So long as she survives.


	3. Confrontation

##### Two and a half years later

Drawing her black cloak close around her, Eea follows in the wake of her Master, keeping the Force drawn about her as tightly as her cloak, so the Neimoidians do not notice her. This is the third mission her Master has taken her on with him, and the first he's actually let her off the Scimitar, even if she's not allowed to leave Theed save to return to the ship. It's better than nothing, and it lets her practice her skills with the Force.

_Keep quiet, and very still. Do not move from behind me when contact is made._

They're supposed to be briefing Lord Sidious - who her Master still will not let her meet - about the arrival of the queen, and her actions they've been able to determine. Eea can only hope there's something more to do after, even if it's only being released from the city to stalk and take out the civilian resistance. Mice, all of them.

Holding very still as she's been told, Eea listens as the holoprojector comes on, Lord Sidious's voice a patient, dry sound as he inquires about their update.

"We've sent out watch-droids. We already located her starship in the swamp. It won't be long, my lord."

Viceroy Gunray sounds as oily as any shark, and Eea clenches a fist tightly. She's not allowed to turn him into a slimy corpse, no matter that he's a useless being, and she wants to. Not unless Lord Sidious is done with him, and her Master tells her she may.

"This is an unexpected move for her. It's too aggressive." Lord Sidious doesn't sound puzzled or terribly worried, but then, Eea has been kept from his attention so much that she doubts she could tell what the older Sith is feeling from his voice. "Lord Maul, be mindful. Let them make the first move."

"Yes, my master." There's a note in her Master's voice that she never hears unless he's speaking to Sidious, but knows is expected from her. Something of respect, and more of subservience.

The briefing ends soon after that, and Eea moves so she is by her Master's side, smiling a little to herself when she feels an invisible hand on the back of her neck. She did well enough, and if she'd remained where she'd been until he told her she could move, her Master would think she's plotting something. Like the time she'd managed to rig a trap to douse him with soapy water a year ago.

There is little to do, though, and her Master eventually sends her off with a thought, to find a place without droids or Neimoidians to practice the katas he'd taught her for when she's allowed to have a lightsaber. Something he won't give her until she's better, to her annoyance.

She's still there when her Master comes to find her, beckoning her to follow him. He looks angry and eager, and Eea frowns, curious what has happened that he's in the sort of mood that's always preceded some sort of fight, at least when she's seen it.

"Master?"

"The Jedi are here." Her Master is leading her toward the main hanger of the palace, and Eea jogs to keep up with his strides. "You are to watch, and if you can distract the apprentice, do so. I will deal with the Master."

"I don't have a lightsaber yet, Master. How am I supposed to fight a Jedi without one?"

"With the Force, tunnel-mite." Her Master stops at the hanger doors, listening to the fighting they can hear beyond it. Waiting for the Jedi to come to them, then, and Eea settles into place behind and to the side of her Master, drawing the hood of her cloak up as he has. "The Jedi will not want to kill you."

"That's their weakness." Eea repeats the familiar words, drawing in a deep breath before she reaches out to the Force, delighting in the power that wraps around her.

* * *

When the doors open to reveal the Sith they'd met on Tatooine, Qui-Gon is surprised to see a smaller figure dressed in the same black robes in the position a Padawan would be for a Jedi. Either the Sith is the Master, with a very young apprentice, or there is greater danger in the re-emergence of the Sith than the Jedi already believed.

He draws a quiet breath before striding forward, his voice steady as he locks gazes with the Sith. "We'll handle this."

Qui-Gon hears Padmé's, "We'll take the long way," but pays it little heed. There is nothing more he can do for the young queen, save to ensure the Sith cannot endanger her or the rest of Naboo.

Cloaks will get in the way, and he sheds his almost in unison with the Sith, and beside him, Obi-Wan. The younger Sith cannot be much older than Anakin, with pale pink hair braided in a multitude of narrow plaits that fall behind her. There is a line of tattoos across her cheekbones that echo the ones that entirely cover her Master's face - still training, but not unskilled, likely.

She doesn't draw a lightsaber of her own, though, even while her Master lights a double-bladed staff that will be as dangerous to him and his apprentice as it is to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. It doesn't seem to bother the child, only makes her grin, feral and disturbingly cheerful.

The battle begins as Obi-Wan makes the first strike, leaping over the Sith's head to land behind him, putting Obi-Wan between master and apprentice, and the Sith between him and Qui-Gon. The more dangerous place to be, but Qui-Gon knows his Padawan is the better of them to be there.

The Sith pushes them into the hanger, his skill with the light staff as good as the duel on Tatooine had hinted he could be, maneuvering them so he had his apprentice behind him. Protecting her, as a Jedi would with their Padawan, though it's clear when debris sails toward them over the Sith's head that she's not entirely helpless herself. Nor a mere observer to the battle.

* * *

Eea slaps the controls for the door to the power station with the Force, darting through them as they begin to open before turning back to watch her Master dueling the Jedi. It's beautiful, the dance of light, and she giggles as she continues to back away on the catwalks to keep out of range. Pushing the apprentice with the Force when he tries to dart in toward her Master, distracting him as she's been told.

Her Master joins her on the catwalk, grinning at the Jedi as if daring them to follow - and they will, they cannot avoid it. She reaches out an invisible hand to yank at the apprentice's ankle as he lands, snarling when he counters her pull enough to stay on the catwalk, even if he very nearly has the top of his head taken off by her Master in the process.

She tries to keep clear as her Master told her, but she can see an opening, and charges, grabbing the apprentice around the thighs as she shoves him with the Force as much as her own momentum. The free-fall a few moments later is a bit of a surprise, but she laughs, letting go with one hand to reach for the vibroknife still at her belt.

They land with a thump, and Eea rolls one direction, the apprentice sliding away the other and nearly off the edge - leaving his lightsaber on the platform.

"Mine!" Eea crows with delight as she snatches it up, backing away from the edge as the apprentice uses the Force to save himself from the drop. She grins at him, turning the lightsaber until she finds the button to turn it on, gripping it with both hands as the blue blade emerges from the hilt. "Thank you for this, Jedi. I have always wanted one of these for my own."

"That's not yours." The apprentice takes a step toward her, holding out his hand, and she can feel him trying to tug the lightsaber from her hands with the Force.

"NO!" She pushes back, an invisible hand clenched into a fist that she slams into the apprentice's face. "You lost it, I grabbed it, it's mine now."

As he stumbles back, surprise on his face, Eea turns, deactivating the lightsaber as she bolts along the nearest walkway, making for the walls where she can climb to join her Master if the apprentice doesn't pull her down. She shrieks when she feels a hand grab her by the ankle, tripping her. Rolling, she brings the lightsaber up, activating it as the apprentice slides to a stop just shy of impaling himself on his own blade.

"I don't want to hurt you, little one, but I can't let you go." The apprentice is good at invisible hands, and Eea struggles to keep him from using one to pry her fingers off the lightsaber. "And I need this back."

"You can't have it." Eea tightens her grip more, lashing out with a wave of Force-energy, making the apprentice focus on keeping her from hitting him rather than trying to take back the lightsaber. She scrambles to her feet, drawing a breath as she moves into one of the katas her Master has taught her. Driving the apprentice back as he avoids her swings.

She only realizes it hasn't kept him busy enough when she feels something impact her back, knocking her down and leaving her dazed enough that the apprentice can take the lightsaber from her hand.

"Sleep, little Sith." Eea can feel the Force-compulsion behind the words, and fights it, though she can hear the apprentice running, leaping to the next catwalk to go help his Master. She has failed.

* * *

Maul shakes his head as he looks down at the dying Jedi, almost disappointed in the end of the fight. "That was over too soon, Jedi. I would have liked a longer battle."

"You'll have the chance." Qui-Gon looks up at him with amusement mingled in with the pain from the wound Maul has dealt him. "I only hope your apprentice can be saved."

Chuckling, Maul shakes his head again. "She already was. My little tunnel-mite will not want the sort of rescue you Jedi would give her, when all she desires is the power she's been given." He pauses, crouching down so he's closer, though he keeps a careful eye on the Jedi's lightsaber to be sure he won't be stabbed by a suddenly retrieved weapon. "I will give you a mercy, though, and kill your apprentice swiftly."

He grabs the lightsaber off the floor as he stands, contemplating tossing it into the melting pit before he hooks it on the back of his belt instead. His apprentice will appreciate having a lightsaber, and it seems appropriate to give her the one of his fallen adversary.

Waiting as the force-field walls cycle, he moves to meet the apprentice who is now charging toward him, lit lightsaber in hand. Ready to meet his death, and Maul grins, activating his lightstaff, countering the strike of the apprentice with ease. It becomes apparent quickly that the boy sensed something of what happened, as Maul is forced on the defensive, back toward where he left the older Jedi to die.

Beyond the apprentice, Maul catches sight of his tunnel-mite dragging herself over the edge of the catwalk, face a mask of furious concentration. He grins, lashing out with the Force to knock Obi-Wan back as the walls begin to cycle again, putting one between them, and giving his apprentice time to march up to the end of the corridor.

"I'll get that lightsaber back, Jedi, when my Master cuts you down." The tunnel-mite grins when Obi-Wan turns to look at her, surprise visible on his face. "I'm not a slum-mouse, Jedi. I'm a tunnel-mite. I don't sleep when a shark or a goon tells me to."

Maul paces, waiting for the walls to cycle again, and taking up the battle again once they do. He has to keep his focus on the young Jedi, to keep himself alive against the furious attack, leaping and twisting to maintain the circle of defense and death around him. When the boy severs his lightstaff, the one half going dark as it's separated from the power cells, he snarls, tossing it aside, and reaching behind him for the one he'd stolen.

It makes Obi-Wan's face pale, and Maul dances out of the way of a strike, moving into the room with the melting pit as the walls cycle shut again, the boy just barely avoiding being clipped by the last one, held out of reach for another cycle.

"You're doing better than your Master, boy." Maul swings the Jedi's green saber against the energy wall deliberately, watching Obi-Wan flinch. "I told him I'd give him a mercy, and kill you quickly, instead of leaving you to linger like he did."

"You might not find me so easy to kill." Obi-Wan sounds defiant, and Maul just grins, spinning the green saber in his hand a moment before he settles in to wait for the cycling of the walls.

* * *

Eea bolts forward as soon as the walls go down, ducking when a lightsaber nearly shaves her head, rolling to one side even as she reaches out with invisible hands to try to drag the apprentice down. She pushes to her feet, keeping close to a wall as she watches the fight. The apprentice is good, and she tries again to push him, to grab his arm to give her Master an opening, but it's as if the Jedi isn't even noticing her efforts.

She screams in rage and horror when the Jedi gets past her Master's guard, severing his arm above the elbow, and leaving the green lightsaber he'd been using to roll away still gripped in her Master's hand. Eea darts forward as her Master falls back, ignoring the risk of being slaughtered in favor of grabbing at the fallen lightsaber.

It skitters away from her, toward the energy walls, pushed by the Jedi, and she snarls, reaching out an invisible hand to drag it back to her, prying it out of fingers that are still warm, and whirling to face the Jedi, fury flowing through her.

Eea knows she's not as good as him, knows he could do the same thing as before, but she cannot let him take away her Master, cannot let him leave her with more to learn and no one to learn it from. She charges at him, swinging the lightsaber, and hissing as the collision of blades rattles her teeth. It's hard to keep control of the lightsaber, as it seems to vibrate more in her hands than a vibroknife, and worse when it's blocked by the Jedi's saber rather than him simply moving out of the way.

Her Master rejoins the fight, and together, they drive the Jedi toward the pit in the center of the room. Eea is glad when her Master shoves the Jedi in, and she can turn off the saber, and peer over the edge instead to watch the apprentice fall. Except he's hanging on just out of lightsaber reach, and she snarls, reaching an invisible hand in to start prying at his fingers with the Force.

"Leave him, tunnel-mite." Her Master sounds weary, and Eea looks up at him a moment before looking back at the Jedi, and sending a last wave of Force energy at him to try to knock him from his hold. "Leave him!"

Eea stands, hooking the lightsaber she holds to her belt before hurrying in her Master's wake toward the cycling energy walls.

_We return to the ship, apprentice._


	4. First Kill

##### Two standard months later

Eea takes a deep breath, activating her lightsaber, smiling at its new red blade before she started the session against the droids her Master had programmed as opponents for her. He cannot - or will not - spar against her until she's better, and he's finished replacing his missing arm. Until then, they'll stay on Mustafar, in the facility her Master had directed the droid to pilot them to after the fight with the Jedi on Naboo.

That thought makes her scowl, anger surging as she slashes at a droid. Jedi. Obi-Wan Kenobi, her Master had called the apprentice. The one who took her Master's arm, and tried to take him away from her before she finished learning. Next time she met him, she wouldn't be so weak as she had been then. Wouldn't be ignored like she had been until she had a lightsaber in her hands.

Snarling, she flings out a hand, using the Force to throw one of the droids against the wall. She will learn, and she will not fail her Master again. Another droid fires at her, and she ducks away from the blast, slashing at the droid with her lightsaber, driving it back until it has nowhere to evade her efforts to slice it apart.

She whirls when the third droid scores a hit that makes her hip burn, and growls at the distance between her and it. Bringing up her hand again, she flings out an invisible hand to snatch the droid up, closing the fingers of Force into a fist, and hearing the cracking of its casing and components.

Panting, she lowers her saber, finding the power button to deactivate it after a moment. Eea clips it to her belt before she goes looking for her Master. She doesn't know how many more droids this place has, but even if they had an endless supply, she wants real opponents, like he'd coaxed into her path on Coruscant when he told her to find her way home. And if she can't have that until his arm is replaced, she wants to know what she can do to make that happen sooner.

* * *

The only problem with traveling, even in her Master's ship, which is one of the faster ships, is the travel itself. Eea is impatient to be off the Scimitar when they land on Denon, and not just at the thought of finding live opponents to fight, and hopefully last at least a little longer than the droids. Her Master's hand on the back of her neck doesn't calm her, and she looks up at him, hoping he's not intending to make her stay on the ship again.

_Follow. Do not speak._

"Yes, Master." Eea smiles when her Master tightens his grip a moment before letting go, dropping back to follow in his wake, drawing her hood up to hide her hair and face, once the ramp lowers to allow them to depart.

She watches the people around them as she follows her Master through the skywalks to the place he'd chosen while enroute to finish the replacement of his missing arm, since they'd been unable to make a suitable one on Mustafar. It will be good to have her Master whole again, able to teach her the way he has before.

And able to give her the marks of her victories again.

_You haven't earned any recently._

Eea ducks her head, watching the hem of her Master's cloak as she keeps up with him, accepting the reprimand. She refuses to fail him again as she had on Naboo - doesn't care to fail at all, but isn't foolish enough to believe she will not. But she will not fail like she has before. No mistakes.

An invisible hand settles at the back of her neck, and Eea smiles.

* * *

##### A standard year later

Maul watches as his apprentice stalks the wounded Jedi who'd tracked her down into the lower levels of Denon's ecumenopolis almost a week ago. Even with the blaster wounds, he isn't certain the tunnel-mite is up to fighting a Jedi by herself yet, no matter the improvement in her skills with a light saber.

Still, he will not interfere with her hunt or her fight unless she is about to be killed by the Jedi. Perhaps not as harsh as his own Master, but he has doubts his Master intended that he survive this long. Especially since he has heard nothing from him since Naboo, and Maul's failure to completely destroy the two Jedi sent there. He perhaps was not meant to succeed, and that is an infuriating thought.

He clenches the mechanical fist that has taken the place of the one Kenobi cut off, his eyes narrowing as he glares at the Jedi several levels below. Each dead Jedi is another step closer to revenge, both against Kenobi and his own treacherous Master. Once his apprentice is strong enough, they can confront his Master, and whoever he has taken as apprentice - if he has taken a new apprentice - since Maul was supposed to have fallen.

A flash of red is all the warning the Jedi has before the tunnel-mite is striking, though it is enough for the duel to be joined, rather than it to be a kill. She holds her own for several minutes before she resorts to a blaster and fleeing to avoid being struck down. Toying with the Jedi, or just surviving, it doesn't matter.

Maul follows the Jedi from his vantage point as the dual hunt is joined again, each of the two being both hunted and hunter. The Jedi is stubborn, and likely trying to hold out for reinforcements from other Jedi - though going alone after even Maul's tunnel-mite apprentice is a mistake that could be fatal. If others come, though, it will force Maul to join the game, and even if no one else comes, they might be forced to leave Denon, and find another place with population enough to give the tunnel-mite live opponents without drawing too much attention to themselves.

Not yet, as much as he wants to. Not with the tunnel-mite still only partially trained. Maul knows, in part, now why his Master waited so long to reveal their presence to the galaxy. There's no point to revealing the Sith live if they aren't both strong enough and skilled enough to hold their own against the Jedi.

* * *

Eea lights her saber, and blocks the strike from the Jedi before they can actually hurt her, frustrated that she's been found before she'd gotten close enough to strike the Jedi down. Aiming a kick at the Jedi's knee, she ducks away from another strike, dropping back as she reaches for her vibroknife. This isn't like the fight on Naboo, and she hates the feeling that she's closer to failing the longer it takes to kill the Jedi.

Switching on the small blade, Eea lets the Jedi comes close again, though she has to work harder to avoid being burned by the blue blade the Jedi wields. It's worth the risk to bury the blade in the Jedi's upper thigh, ripping through muscle before diving off to one side, switching off her saber as she hits the ground and rolls away.

Coming back to her feet, she turns, bolting into the deep shadows of this part of Denon's city. She runs on paths that have become familiar in the last year, picking a shadow to skid into, hunkering down next to the wall of an abandoned section of building and concentrating on hiding herself in the Force while she waits for the Jedi to chase her. Watching the walkway impatiently, one hand gripping her lightsaber, the other the vibroknife.

The Jedi still has his saber lit as he follows with limping footsteps, using the blade to illuminate the shadows. Eea tenses, drawing a little deeper into the shadows as she waits for the Jedi to move past her, then darts forward, aiming for his ankles with the vibroknife, and scrambling to get back as he strikes with his saber. The Jedi goes down, but Eea can feel a burn along her calf, sending pain screaming along her nerves.

"You won't leave Denon alive, Jedi." Her voice is tight with pain, and she glares at the Jedi as she scoots further away, trying to get to her feet, and wincing when she can't put weight on the burned leg. "If I don't kill you, my Master will. And they'll never find your body. Undercity scavengers don't care what you were before they get you."

Eea ignites her saber, using the building the skywalk clings to to help support her as she limps awkwardly toward the Jedi, who is dragging the foot she'd aimed to slice open, unable to move it properly.

"It is the duty of the Jedi to hunt down and destroy the Sith. If my death is the price I must pay to take one of you with me, I will accept it gladly." The Jedi sounds far too calm, and Eea curls her lip in a silent snarl.

"You will not take my Master away from me, nor me from my Master." She returns her vibroknife to its place on her belt, grabbing her blaster instead, though the Jedi had proven able to deflect the bolts before. She'd had to duck out of the way to avoid being killed by her own blaster fire. Pushing away from the wall, she strikes with her lightsaber, forcing the Jedi to block her blade, as she fires the blaster.

Eea stumbles backward as the Jedi swings at her, though his movements are clumsier, with a blaster burn along one thigh. He's still dangerous, so long as he stays on his feet. And she can't get him off his feet if she cannot get past his lightsaber.

She scrambles backward again, out of range, and leaves the blaster on the ground in favor of raising a hand to try to push him off balance, though it hadn't worked before. He's injured now, though, and she pushes with all her strength, grinning victoriously when he stumbles back, reaching out to catch himself with the Force.

_Enough._

Eea slumps down when she hears her Master's voice, glaring at the Jedi as she listens for her Master's footsteps. Failed again.

_Quit toying with him, and kill him._

Tilting her head, Eea frowns, before she feels the familiar, invisible hand of her Master on the back of her neck. Oh. She blinks, and reaches out a hand, concentrating on wrapping invisible fingers around the throat of the Jedi, feeling the Jedi trying to pry the fingers away with the Force before he drops his lightsaber, reaching up with his hands.

Eea smiles, putting as much power as she can into choking the Jedi, only pushing back to her feet once he's on the ground, breath rattling in his chest. She limps over, deactivating her lightsaber and hanging it on her belt before taking out her vibroknife again. It's easy to kill the Jedi now.

After, she scoops up the lightsaber, putting it on her belt next to her own, and begins to limp back toward the building with her Master's ship. Time to clean up, and to see if she's earned another mark of victory.


	5. Cold Burning Ice

##### Thirteen standard months later

Eea blinks away a heavier sleep than she's used to as she reaches for her lightsaber. There's something not right, to roust her from sleep when her Master hasn't woken her. Creeping toward the main room of the warehouse they'd taken over, she listens, and reaches out with the Force to see the room before she steps through the door.

She's not even sure what she's found before she feels like she's been picked up by an icy cold hand, and flung toward the far wall of her small room. Eea barely has the time to curl into a ball before impacting the durasteel, her lightsaber dropped to the ground as she tries to buffer her flight with the Force.

Falling to the floor, she pushes herself up on hands and knees as fury flares, burning away the last dregs of sleep. She gets her feet underneath her, grabbing her lightsaber before she heads for the door, not trying to be as careful as she had earlier.

"Master." That is her own Master's voice, tone one that Eea can't place as she pushes open the door between her sleeping space and the main room. There's another person in their space, cloaked and hooded in black as they are, and her Master is kneeling at his feet.

Sidious, then, and Eea narrows her eyes as she looks at him. Then flinches when he turns his gaze toward her. Cold, assessing, and entirely too familiar.

"Shark," she whispers, anger building higher. She's glad her Master had kept her from Sidious before, if he really is like the other sharks.

"You have taken an apprentice without asking my permission, Lord Maul." Sidious's voice is as cold as his gaze, and Eea tilts her chin up, refusing to look away, even though there is fear rising as strongly as the anger.

"If I had thought I were truly your apprentice, Master, I would have presented her for your approval." Her Master's voice holds less of the respect she remembers from before Naboo and the Jedi, when Sidious had ordered the destruction of the Jedi and Queen Amidala.

Sidious turns away from Eea, finally, focusing once more on her Master, and the absence of attention lets her finally move, ducking back into her room to grab her blaster and vibroknife. Even if she can't use the blaster on Sidious, she isn't going to leave it behind.

_Take Scimitar and the droid, and leave._

Eea hesitates at the doorway, wavering between obedience and a fear that leaving her Master will mean an end to her training. Touching one band of ink around her forearm, she looks toward the exit of the warehouse, uncertain she'll even get that far, and turns toward her Master instead.

_I'm not leaving you to the shark alone. You're my Master, and you're not done teaching me, and if you die here because the shark is angry, you'll never finish training me._

She tightens her grip on her weapons, stepping out of the room, and watching her Master as he rose, the lightstaff he'd repaired on Denon in hand, to face Sidious.

_Leave. There is no revenge if you do not live._

Red blades clash, and Eea wants to join her Master, to fight Sidious, but the memories of her sparring with her Master pale next to the battle in front of her.

_Don't you dare die, Master._

* * *

_If the tunnel-mite comes back without me, transmit the file to those I have told you, and take her to Lianna._

The command had been hard-coded into C3PX, as well as spoken aloud, an imperative that could not be overridden without time and desire. At least its master hadn't left it orders to kill someone, though what effect the file would have on its master is debatable.

C3PX watches the girl curl up in one of the passenger seats, her pale gray eyes tinged with amber, glaring at nothing until she shifts her attention to it. Having even the girl glare at it is uncomfortable, and C3PX looks away, returning its attention to the controls that it can only just handle. It's just as well the computer is easy to talk to, and better at flying the ship.

* * *

"Might I suggest you actually attempt to sleep, youngling?" The droid has been trying to obey some order from her Master, as if she needs cared for, since they arrived on Lianna. "And actually eat more than one meal, tomorrow, if not today?"

"No." Eea pushes the droid with the Force, toward the lift, a silent command for the stupid thing to go monitor the local traffic or something. Anything other than potentially getting between her and the airlock. Either her Master will return, or someone else will try to get in - like they did when the ship first landed here, and she had cut the goons down between her own blaster and her lightsaber.

"Master Maul will arrive when he arrives, and staring at the airlock won't help you be ready when he does."

The droid may be right, but unless she needs to get more food - there are still ration bars, and enough of them for months yet - she's staying right here. Until her Master comes, or she's sure he's dead. And if he's dead...

"I will hunt Kenobi down on my own, Master. And when I destroy him, I will find the shark who took you from me, and I will find a way to kill him, too." Her voice is lower than it had been, but she likes it. She sounds older, more dangerous, than she had before. "You promised me knowledge, and you promised I would never have to fear the sharks or the goons again. I will have what you promised me."

Shaking her head, Eea draws a breath, fingering her lightsaber. Her Master _will_ want her to still be practicing what he's taught her, even though she wants just to stay here until he comes back. She watches the airlock a long moment more before deciding she can watch just as well from outside, and she can practice with her lightsaber until maybe she can sleep for a little while.

That will shut the droid up for a short time, at least.

* * *

Traveling when he has neither the Scimitar, nor the financial resources of his former Master - Maul smiles to himself as he recalls their recent encounter on Brentaal - takes rather longer than he likes, but is neither impossible nor as dangerous as his former Master would no doubt like to make it. Maul closes his flesh-and-bone hand into a fist, the other nothing more than mechanical dead weight he will have to replace soon.

At least he had not been caught in his own trap - neither had Lord Sidious, but the other Sith had been forced to retreat or be caught by the Jedi who'd recently come to Brentaal. It had been perhaps a too-near thing, on his part, finding a place to stow away on board a freighter leaving for Castell, and slowly making his way to Lianna from there.

He draws a slow breath, reaching out along the bond that had formed as he trained the tunnel-mite, finding her as he waits for the ship he's taken passage on to make its final approach to the spaceport on Lianna.

 _Master._ There's relief there, but underneath, an ice that promises to burn those who touch it. Not for him - no, this seems to have particular focus on Kenobi and on Sidious. _Should I send the droid to meet you at the spaceport?_

_No. I will find you._

He listens to the sounds of the ship around him, waiting until they quiet before he unfolds himself from the space he's been hiding himself in since he found one making the last leg of the journey to Lianna. It's not a comfortable trip, but it does not require money, nor allows others to easily track his progress, unless he's foolish enough to get caught.

In the port itself, he keeps his hood up, and keeps to the shadows that are deepening as dusk fades into night, seeking a place to slip out and into the city that sprawls over the land-mass of the planet. Hunting through the city for the Scimitar and his apprentice will be simple enough once he is among the walkways and buildings, following the bond that links them - a bond Maul still isn't quite sure of, as there had been nothing of the sort between him and Sidious.

Shrugging away the puzzle for now, Maul finds an unguarded entrance to the port - a place for maintenance workers to get to and from their work - and slips out into the chaos of a city that, like any other sprawl, never truly sleeps. An excellent place to remain for a short while, and have his mechanical arm repaired. Where to go from here, he'll figure out once he has his ship and apprentice back.


	6. Opening Salvo

##### Three Standard Years later

Lifting the Jedi's lightsaber from his belt, Eea lofts it over the body, narrowing her eyes at it as she tears it apart. The power cell she saves - an explosion is too visible - but the rest she powders with the Force, dusting the body with the remains. Twelve Jedi in as many months, and only the first two had noticed her before she killed them. Hunting alone, killing alone, so she can be what she should be.

_Am I ready now, Master?_

She slips away from the alley as she asks the question, already feeling the approval over the bond for her latest hunt. It makes her smile as she pulls her hood back up, hiding her face behind gray fabric. She wants her black robes back on, but they're too noticable for their plans.

_After your arms heal, we will travel to Coruscant._

Eea's smile widens, and she lets her joy at being allowed another victory-mark return along the bond. An invisible hand settles on the back of her neck, and she stifles a happy laugh, hurrying as much as she dares toward the space port and her waiting Master.

* * *

The new marks are bands of black around her wrists, almost the final sequence to flow from her shoulders to her hands - she hopes this trip to Coruscant will earn her the last of them - and creating beautiful spikes that will be just visible past the cuffs of her tunics. A warning, if anyone sees it and has the wit to read it.

"Perfect." Eea leans into her Master a moment, before straightening, turning her attention back to what she has been training for, fierce joy singing in her veins. She keeps her hands fisted in her robes from practice, and the knowledge there really isn't a point to touching the waiting bombs until they're on Coruscant, and they're preparing to carry them where they need to go. "Is there really a way into the Jedi Temple from below?"

"There will be." Her Master rests a hand on the back of her neck, guiding her to the lift, and pushing her lightly toward a seat to strap in. She still isn't allowed to pilot the ship, though she's at least been allowed to see how it's done. One day, perhaps. Not now, though, not when they need to get deep into the city, down where no one pays attention to how people come and go.

Eea smiles to herself, wrapping herself in the Force as she straps into the seat. A day's journey - less, really - and they will be in place to begin this. Dragging down the Jedi, and be damned what Sidious had planned to manage the same. Let him see her and her Master rise beyond his plans that would have the Sith skulk in the shadows for the rest of their lives.

Drawing a deep breath, she settles to meditate, to pass the time until they arrive on Coruscant to begin their deadly work. It will be a victory indeed if Kenobi isn't there to have even a chance to prevent the destruction they plan - let him learn of the deaths, and come hunting them. Trail them to where Eea and her Master can draw him into a trap, and destroy him properly. Watch his face as he falls.

That thought brings her a quiet glee that carries into her meditation, and makes her smile as she comes out later, listening for the command of her Master.

_Soon._

He is cautious here, where Sidious has his power-base, but they cannot turn away from this now, even if the other Sith arrives. Eea knows her Master has plans in place in case such happens, but he hasn't told her what those plans are - just as he hadn't told her what he'd planned for Brentaal. Only that he escaped, and so did Sidious, and this time, Sidious would be more cautious about confronting them.

It's hours after they land in a dark, abandoned section of building, the lights of the never-sleeping city high above them, before her Master tells her to bring the bombs, and follow him. Walking through shadowed streets and tunnels, where there are things that only barely stay away, following them and watching them as they make their way to the deep walls of the Temple.

There is a newly-carved opening, letting them into the deepest, oldest parts of the Jedi Temple. It feels strange there, as if something is pressing down all around her, trying to suffocate her, to dull her senses and drag at her limbs. Eea curls her lips in a snarl, wrapping herself more tightly in the Force, and in shadows that cling and hide her form from anything save cameras, were there any down here.

She still can barely see her Master, leading her through the warren, stopping in places to put bombs where they will bring down pillars and walls. Eea is glad when they set the final one, and can fight their way out of the oppressive silence and clinging atmosphere of the Jedi Temple.

 _What_ was _that, Master?_

Even once they are out, she doesn't dare speak aloud, following in her Master's wake back toward their ship. She can still feel the Jedi Temple trying to invade her mind, even though she's leaving. Sticky and clinging like spider-webbing.

_It is a place imbued with the Force - the Jedi idea of the Force, that all must be light to have any place in their ranks. Forgetting the power of the Dark Side._

Her Master sounds amused, and Eea lets herself smile, though she isn't certain she finds the Jedi Temple nearly so amusing.

_It wanted to eat me._

A quiet chuckle answers her, and spoken aloud, "The Jedi would destroy us all. Why wouldn't their Temple try to eat you?"

Eea shivers, letting out a quiet, unhappy hiss. "Can we watch it burn before we leave?"

"Of course."

* * *

The first signs of the explosions are a ripple in the Force and a deep rumble that is more felt than heard, shaking the building beneath his feet. It takes time for the one corner tower to topple - the only physical destruction of the building that had been intended - and the walls of the ziggurrat to crumble at that corner as the great pillars that had supported it collapsed.

He can feel his apprentice press into his side, and reaches up to rest his hand against the back of her neck. This moment is as much her triumph as his, but it's only a beginning. There are more Jedi - even here, not dying, but struggling with their grief and the miasma that will spread through the Temple on the shrapnel and debris that are soaking in the Dark Side - and there is still Sidious, in his fortress-palace, all but enthroned in his role as Supreme Chancellor.

_Will we bring his palace down the same?_

Maul tightens his grip on the back of his tunnel-mite's neck, a sense of unease going through him at the thought of approaching Sidious so closely. It's too soon, certainly, while his former Master is at the height of his power, and Maul's unknowing allies are unlikely to have figured out who the third Sith in the galaxy is.

_Not yet._

Not while Sidious remains safe in his tower, armored against the strikes of his enemies. But if he comes out into the galaxy... If he does, the next time Maul will not have only a half-trained apprentice to help kill his former Master, nor need to rely on one lone Jedi.

No. Next time, his former Master will die.


	7. From the End it Begins

##### Four standard months later

Eea drags the Jedi - an apprentice, younger than her, and foolish to not expect her to use more than a lightsaber in a fight - into the warehouse, and toward the smaller room that had once been an office, and later her sleeping space when she and her Master had first been on Brentaal. Windowless and newly reinforced, it's a perfect place to lock the Jedi into, and draw Kenobi to them.

Dropping the Jedi to the floor, she checks the shock-cuffs around his wrist, and the matching collar around his neck. There are Force-damping chips of stone embedded throughout them, enough that it takes an actual key to unlock them, and the apprentice shouldn't be able to free himself from the room, either. Bait for the trap, only, and not aid to Kenobi.

She nods to herself before grabbing the Jedi's lightsaber, adding it to the ones already on her belt - the first taken from Kenobi's dead Master, the second from the first Jedi she killed - and backing away toward the door. The Jedi should remain unconscious for a while yet, but she isn't going to risk anything going wrong with this trap.

Eea's waited long enough to see Kenobi fall, and she's not going to let a slip stop that happening. She checks the door lock once it's secure, fingers brushing over the metal plate a moment before she reaches into it and uses the Force to slag the parts together, hearing the bolts fall into place that will keep it from being easily pried open.

Now all she must do is make sure the place is ready for Kenobi to walk in.

_I have the trap baited, Master._

There is silence a moment, before Eea feels a burst of approval from her Master.

_Do not engage Kenobi alone, tunnel-mite. Keep him busy until I arrive._

Eea wants very much to finish Kenobi herself, but her Master has something planned, and has told her not to kill him. Not yet, anyway - there is still a use for the Jedi they both want dead.

_Yes, Master._

* * *

They'd followed the trail to Brentaal IV, but once on the surface, there were too many places that were steeped in the dark side of the Force for them to search them all if they remained together. Nor were there any nudges from the Force about which was the most likely place for the Sith to be hiding, leaving them spread thin - easy targets to be picked off, one by one.

Silent, but he hadn't felt any of them die, which had left Obi-Wan frustrated - not terribly worried, not until Anakin had crowed about finding the one Sith before going as silent as the others. He can still feel the training bond, but it's strained by something more than physical distance. Not enough for Obi-Wan to fail to follow it, but enough for him to be uncertain what condition his Padawan is in.

He pauses outside a warehouse, which has the same miasma of darkness that every other place he's searched on the planet has - and the same one that now lurks in the older parts of the Temple - and studies it a moment before reaching for his com-link. Even if he goes in alone, the others should know where he is, and where to find him, if they can. If they're not all picked off.

Thumbing on the device, he leaves it on his belt, letting it broadcast whatever it picks up - and his location - as he pushes open the smaller of the two doors that are all that break the duracrete wall. Inside, it's almost pitch black, darkness not even broken by artificial lighting. He can feel Anakin must be in here, but where is less certain.

Obi-Wan tightens his grip on his lightsaber a moment before turning it on, and stepping forward into the large room. The door swings shut behind him with a clang that echoes, giving him the impression of a large room, perhaps one large enough to take up the entire building.

"You wanted me to follow, didn't you? Here I am."

The only reply is something large flung toward him, that he dodges, then deflects with the Force when it just swings around toward him again. Another piece of debris joins the first, the two dancing around him like manic garbage compactors.

"You've gotten better at throwing things, congratulations!" He grabs one of the objects with the Force - it looks like a rather large ingot of durasteel, now that it's still enough to look at - before flinging it back in the direction he thought it had come from. "But so have I."

There's a laugh, a lower-pitched version of the one that still haunts his nightmares, and something smaller comes flying out of the darkness, that Obi-Wan deflects with his lightsaber this time. A vial falls to the ground, the contents spreading in a stain on the duracrete floor, but the needle is still in the air, harder to see now that it isn't accompanied by whatever poison or drug the Sith intended to deliver.

"Do you know where your apprentice is, Kenobi?" The Sith apprentice is ahead of him, somewhere near, but not close enough to be seen in the light from his saber. Taunting him, but refusing to engage him. It's disconcerting, and rather more worrying than it would be if she came at him with a skill to match his own.

"Why don't you tell me?"

The Sith snorts, and Obi-Wan can imagine her rolling her eyes, but she doesn't actually reply. Not even with another ingot of durasteel or needle full of drug or poison. There isn't any sound at all, just a sense that he's being watched - studied - by a curious, if unfriendly, gaze. Not malevolent, as he's always assumed the Sith would be.

A moment later, there's a wave of fury, that batters against his mind like ice in the wind, sharp and cold. It makes him stagger, one hand coming up as he shoves back, a Force-push that is less directed than he'd prefer. Too late, he realizes the distraction, as the forgotten ingot slams into him, and sends him sprawling to the floor, dazed. His lightsaber skitters away from nerveless fingers, deactivating itself before he hears it stop - or stopped.

"Thank you for the new blade, Jedi."

He reaches out with the Force, trying to call his lightsaber back to him, and feels like he's slammed his hand into a duracrete wall. Obi-Wan stifles his pained yelp, though it doesn't keep the Sith from laughing again.

"Invisible fingers break too, Jedi. Master taught me how."

Obi-Wan hears movement in the dark, and tries to roll away, only to feel a sharp jab in his thigh.

"Sleep, Jedi. My Master will be here soon enough."

* * *

Eea runs her fingers over the hilt of Kenobi's lightsaber, exploring the feel of his aura as she watches him from a safe distance. If the sedative lasts the way it is meant to, he'll be unconscious until her Master returns. She hopes.

She reaches out with the Force to check the apprentice, feeling his humiliation at being captured, and his fury that he'd been bested by a Sith who he doesn't think is any older than he is. Eea laughs, running her thumb over the lightsaber again, turning her gaze back to the Jedi sprawled on the floor.

_Why can I not kill him, Master?_

Swinging her feet, she keeps her attention mostly on Kenobi, waiting impatiently for her Master to return. She wants to understand why he's intent on sparing this Jedi, when he's taught her the enmity of the Jedi for the Sith - and the Sith for their ancient enemy. There is no safety for them, no power that isn't a struggle to maintain, so long as the Jedi survive.

_There are more ways of destroying the Jedi than simply killing them, tunnel-mite. Sidious has corrupted Jedi, made them into Sith - one of them is_ his _apprentice now._

Eea tilts her head, contemplating her Master's words as she stares at Kenobi. There's an idea there, one that appeals, but...

_Why Kenobi, then? Why not his apprentice?_

The apprentice is younger, and not a fully-trained Jedi. Easier to break bad habits, and retrain him as a Sith. Make him one of their own, their companion in hunting the Jedi. An ally to destroy Sidious and whatever apprentice he's taken, and to finally bring about their revenge on all their enemies. Perhaps even turn him against Kenobi, and watch the Jedi's despair grow.

_Because I want to see the Jedi break. He didn't have the honor to kill me when he struck, and he has earned no mercy from me to simply die._

Eea closes her hand around Kenobi's lightsaber, cold rage washing through her at the thought of Naboo, and the first encounter with Kenobi. The injury to her Master, the attempt to steal him from her. To leave her Masterless and half-trained, and she bares her teeth at the unconscious Jedi.

Perhaps it is better to make Kenobi suffer for the injuries he has inflicted on them. She reaches behind her, unclipping the apprentice Jedi's saber from her belt, holding them both in her hands, contemplating Kenobi.

_Can I kill his apprentice?_

There's silence from her Master for a long moment, and Eea prods at the spikier aura of the apprentice that clings to his lightsaber as she waits for a reply.

_No._ Her Master pauses again, as if he's being distracted - one of the Jedi they hadn't secured before Eea'd captured Kenobi's apprentice, probably. _Wait until I return._

Letting out a sigh, Eea kicks her feet again, fingers tracing idle patterns over the hilts of the two lightsabers. At least, if nothing else, she has a pair of new sabers - even if she can't keep them once her Master has achieved his goal with Kenobi. Perhaps one from the other Jedi. The pretty one, with the pale headdress and red lightsaber.

Kenobi shifts, and Eea reaches out with the Force to pluck another of the needles of sedative from the box, delivering it in similar fashion to the previous one. No need to get too close to Kenobi until her Master arrives.

Letting out a sigh when Kenobi relaxes into unconsciousness again, Eea brings her legs up, settling into a light meditation to wait for her Master's return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all who have read and kudos and commented! I am glad you've stuck around to the end of this story, and while this story ends here, with the capture of some of Maul and Eea's enemies, there will be other stories.
> 
> Hopefully the next one will begin posting in a week or so, once I have the first chapter or two finished, and have access to a wireless network again.

**Author's Note:**

> There is some dialogue lifted directly from the relevant scenes in _The Phantom Menace_ , because it still works for this story.
> 
> The first part of the story was posted for fan_flashworks, for the Exploration challenge.


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